Big East Adds Boise State and 4 Other Schools
Written by Bob Whalon, Wednesday December 07 2011
The Big East made a move that probably saved their football life in the eyes of the BCS. The conference officially announced that they are adding five new members, including football power Boise State, to its membership for the 2013 season.
Conference commissioner John Marinatto announced on Wednesday that the Big East was adding Central Florida, SMU and Houston from Conference USA in all sports to replace departing all-sports members Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia, while adding San Diego State and Boise State from the Mountain West for football only.
San Diego State will join the Big West in all other sports, while Boise State will play the rest of their sports in the WAC.
Marinatto said that the conference took a "bold and creative step by going west," giving it the "single largest media footprint in intercollegiate athletics from coast-to-coast in football."
Marinatto said the conference will not change its name in spite of having some west coast teams. Instead they will divide into two divisions for football in an East and West format, although the makeup of the divisions has not been decided. "We have five new marketplaces and will boost our television market up to six percent up to 28 million households," Marinatto said. "We'll have four different time zones. It's a powerful model unmatched by any other conference."
For Boise State, the move was made to join a conference with an automatic BCS bid. Getting more television exposure in the Big East, which has a football contract with ESPN/ABC, was another important factor for Boise State. Their current television deal with the Mountain West was only with the Mountain West Sports Network and Versus. "We're excited about the access and exposure," Boise State president Robert Kustra said.
Marinatto said he is prepared to have Syracuse, Pitt and West Virginia and the five new members join the remaining Big East schools: Connecticut, Cincinnati, Rutgers, South Florida and non-football members Notre Dame, Georgetown, St. Johns, Seton Hall, DePaul, Providence, Marquette and Villanova all be in the Big East in 2013. That would mean that men's and women's basketball would have 19 member schools, while there would be 13 schools for football.
Syracuse, Pitt and West Virginia are legally tied to the conference until 2014, but there are lawsuits pending that could change that. Once those schools leave, Big East basketball would be reduced to a more manageable 16 schools and sources have said that Navy is being considered as a football only school for the future.
Eventually Marinatto said he would like to have a conference championship game, possibly in Yankee Stadium, but that is a newsconference for another day.
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